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January 06, 2013

Our First Port of Call - Key West

All the times we've been to Florida we've never been to Key West so this would actually be something new. We have friends and relatives who absolutely love it and some who say "Been there, Done that".

We started out the day in Chops for breakfast. This is something new in the past few years since we last sailed on a Radiance class ship. Suite guests (we'd splurged this time as it was only a 5 day cruise, was Christmas and our 30th. Wedding anniversary) can now have a made to order breakfast in there and boy was it good. We decided to have omelettes and it was so easy for John to get one done with no butter or milk in the prep. Best of all for him no reaction!

After our leisurely breakfast we decided to head up top and watch us sail in to Key West. We weren't due to arrive till 11 so there was plenty of time to get up there. We docked at the U.S. Navy base (Disney Magic was behind us and taking the dock in town) and because of it still being a base we were told that we would not be allowed to walk into town but would have to use the buses provided or the little trams (like at the Ex).

After lunch we headed out to see Key West and were lucky enough to actually get a bus and not one of those little tram things with the wooden seats. After leaving the base we passed through a beautiful looking residential area known as the Truman Annex, all white clapboard houses with picket fences and finally got to the drop off/pickup point in "downtown".

Definitely scuzzy looking with loads of people jamming the sidewalks. Maybe we should have signed up for a tour to see a better part of Key West. We walked at least 6 blocks along Duval Street and really only saw bars, bars and more bars along with about the same number of t-shirt shops. One big exception was a church.

We did find a little parkette with busts of notable residents right after we got off the bus and were looking for Duval Street.

In the same area we saw some of the Keys famous wild roosters.

Finally we decided to start heading back to the pick up point or maybe I should say, my back decided. I remembered seeing a Starbucks sign while we'd been walking so we headed for it. To the best of my memory it was back about 2 or 3 blocks. Finally we saw the sign and headed for it. Needless to say it was packed and not a seat to be had. There was another entrance it seemed so we went out it and into The Conch Hotel. Ok a hotel usually has a bar and this one did, with comfortable looking seats I might add. Hurray! While we sat in there we decided it would be a good time to call my sister and brother- in-law as we'd arranged before we left home to wish them a Merry Christmas (we were going to be in Cozumel on Christmas Day and didn't know what the cell phone signals and charges would be like) I was happy to hear the presents had arrived safely although there was almost an issue with theirs.

At the bartender's suggestion, we walked back along a different street. It seemed a lot nicer than Duval. On the way to it we passed an art deco movie theatre with a "Marilyn Monroe" out front.

Entrance to the Harry S Truman little white house.

Area near where the Magic was docked.

We caught a bus back to the ship and for one of the very few times we've cruised we needed photo I.D. because we were entering a Navy Base.

It was formal night, never had one that wasn't an at sea day but..... We don't know what was going on but it took our waiter over 30 minutes to serve the entree after removing the salads and then got the order wrong. He was so long we ended up missing the Captain's reception. Oh well he can only improve.

Comments

All the times we've been to Florida we've never been to Key West so this would actually be something new. We have friends and relatives who absolutely love it and some who say "Been there, Done that".

We started out the day in Chops for breakfast. This is something new in the past few years since we last sailed on a Radiance class ship. Suite guests (we'd splurged this time as it was only a 5 day cruise, was Christmas and our 30th. Wedding anniversary) can now have a made to order breakfast in there and boy was it good. We decided to have omelettes and it was so easy for John to get one done with no butter or milk in the prep. Best of all for him no reaction!

After our leisurely breakfast we decided to head up top and watch us sail in to Key West. We weren't due to arrive till 11 so there was plenty of time to get up there. We docked at the U.S. Navy base (Disney Magic was behind us and taking the dock in town) and because of it still being a base we were told that we would not be allowed to walk into town but would have to use the buses provided or the little trams (like at the Ex).

After lunch we headed out to see Key West and were lucky enough to actually get a bus and not one of those little tram things with the wooden seats. After leaving the base we passed through a beautiful looking residential area known as the Truman Annex, all white clapboard houses with picket fences and finally got to the drop off/pickup point in "downtown".

Definitely scuzzy looking with loads of people jamming the sidewalks. Maybe we should have signed up for a tour to see a better part of Key West. We walked at least 6 blocks along Duval Street and really only saw bars, bars and more bars along with about the same number of t-shirt shops. One big exception was a church.

We did find a little parkette with busts of notable residents right after we got off the bus and were looking for Duval Street.

In the same area we saw some of the Keys famous wild roosters.

Finally we decided to start heading back to the pick up point or maybe I should say, my back decided. I remembered seeing a Starbucks sign while we'd been walking so we headed for it. To the best of my memory it was back about 2 or 3 blocks. Finally we saw the sign and headed for it. Needless to say it was packed and not a seat to be had. There was another entrance it seemed so we went out it and into The Conch Hotel. Ok a hotel usually has a bar and this one did, with comfortable looking seats I might add. Hurray! While we sat in there we decided it would be a good time to call my sister and brother- in-law as we'd arranged before we left home to wish them a Merry Christmas (we were going to be in Cozumel on Christmas Day and didn't know what the cell phone signals and charges would be like) I was happy to hear the presents had arrived safely although there was almost an issue with theirs.

At the bartender's suggestion, we walked back along a different street. It seemed a lot nicer than Duval. On the way to it we passed an art deco movie theatre with a "Marilyn Monroe" out front.

Entrance to the Harry S Truman little white house.

Area near where the Magic was docked.

We caught a bus back to the ship and for one of the very few times we've cruised we needed photo I.D. because we were entering a Navy Base.

It was formal night, never had one that wasn't an at sea day but..... We don't know what was going on but it took our waiter over 30 minutes to serve the entree after removing the salads and then got the order wrong. He was so long we ended up missing the Captain's reception. Oh well he can only improve.